Egregores, MegaCorps, and Magik Options

[rlemansky]

Greetings.

RL Hermetic Theory postulates the existence of egregores. These are astral entities based off of the collective belief(s) of the members of a group or philosophy. Thus, the US, Liberty, Gaia all have their own egregores. Some theorize that 'gods' are only alive as long as they have worshippers. RL mages use this theory to create servitors-coalesce enough of the right energy and-'It's Alive!'

In SR, MegaCorps employ thousands, if not millions, have their own philosophy, and have their own 'legal' existence. Is it too much of a stretch to assume that they have an astral 'life'? Imagine a group of runners hitting Ares, only to find that there is an Ares spirit, with major mojo at it's disposal. Imagine Lowfyr getting ousted-or at least battling-the SK entity on the metaplanes.

These corporate egregores could start Initiatory Groups, or even function as Totems to grant spells-or at least dispatch spirit 'buds' to aid it's followers. That'd take corporate magical security to the next level (like it needed the help) and add some new Shaman to the corporate roster-aren't corp shaman rather rare?

On a completely different note-can Shaman cast spells? I've gotten a bit confused in my re-reading of the books that I have. Much of the time the authors refer to spell slingers as magicians-are both Hermetics and Shaman magicians, or are Hermetics the only mages? I know it's semantics, but I'm a bit lost, nonetheless.

Thanks.

R